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Why are my credit card views not the same

khbfin

I asked this question previously and did not get a solution, so I'm trying a different approach. I have two credit card accounts active on Quicken Classic for Mac. The first works correctly—when I enter a charge, it subtracts from the balance and the more charges I enter, the greater the balance becomes. The other, with the exact same columns, subtracts from the Balance instead of adding to it! I have tried clicking "Apply to All Credit Card Accounts" from the account that is working correctly with no result. I simply cannot figure out why they are not the same. I've included two screen shots showing that the categories are the same on both, but you can see the results.

The one that's right.png

The one that's wrong.png

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Quicken Carlos

Hi @khbfin,

Thanks for letting us know about the issue you're experiencing.

Based on the screenshot you provided, the Apply to All Credit Card Accounts option applies to the columns, but it does not appear to apply to the sorting order. It looks like the difference between the accounts may be the sort option.

I suggest reviewing both accounts and confirming whether the arrow indicating the sort order is in the same column and position. If it is not, click the appropriate column to set the sorting order to match the other account.

I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes.

UKR

"The one that's wrong" seems to have an Opening Balance that was entered with the wrong sign, positive instead of negative if you owed money at that time.
It's also possible that
- there's a duplicate payment recorded somewhere
- or the account register is not correctly sorted by Date,
- or it's filtered in some way and doesn't show all transactions

jacobs

It's not a sort order or filtering issue, because the balance column values would be italicized if you didn't have all transactions visible and sorted in date order.

But here's the thing: "The one that's wrong" is actually working correctly! Look at the first visible transaction, Dining. The balance before was +250.32. The charge was $43.71, and the balance is decreased by $43.71 to $206.61.

Look at any of the Charge transactions and you'll see the same thing: they are reducing the balance, as is correct for a credit card.

What's tripping you up is that the balances are positive where a credit card account typically has a negative running balance. Look at "the one that's right" for the Credit Card Payment transaction. The prior balance was -58.63, the payment made was 58.63, so the balance is increased by that payment amount, up to a balance of zero. Now go back to "the one that's wrong" and look at the $3,000 payment. It's doing the same thing: adding $3,000 to the outstanding balance. But it looks weird because you had a positive (credit) balance before the payment, and then a bigger positive balance after the $3,000 payment. (If the balance on the prior transaction has been -4,000, then after the 3,000 payment, the balance would be -4,000 + 3,000 = -1,000.)

So you need to look at transactions you haven't shown us in these screen shots to find where your balance became positive. It could be a wrong opening balance, as @UKR suggested. Or a duplicated payment somewhere. Or some other older transaction which was entered incorrectly to give you a positive balance.

khbfin

The "sort" order is the same in both accounts! Both accounts have more than 10 years of records (one starts in 2012, the other in 2014). I didn't copy the first two columns into the screenshots (date & payee) because I thought that was private.

So…again…I see no reason there should be a difference in the two. And, since you are with Quicken (I presume), I can tell you that this issue started with the update that was released a few months ago. Before that, there was no issue with the account that is now wrong.

khbfin

No, the opening balance was more than 12 years ago! You are just seeing recent transactions.

khbfin

This is a credit card account! The balance on the credit card should be increased when you have a charge—not reduced. If you look at "the one that's right," you'll see that the credit card balance is in RED because that's what we owe. It absolutely matches what the credit card company shows. The balance on "The one that's wrong" hasn't matched the online balance since the Quicken update a few months ago.

Believe me…it's not my math.

Boatnmaniac

@khbfin - I agree with @UKR and @jacobs. The "wrong" one does indeed appear to be calculating correctly in that the charges are being correctly subtracted from the balance and the payments are being correctly added to the balance. But the issue is that the balance itself is a positive number meaning that there is something incorrect in the register before the dates of the the transactions shown in the picture that is making it that way.

Here are a 3 things that I know of that can cause this: Back up your data file before proceeding.

OPENING BALANCE TRANSACTION: There is a known issue where sometimes when the connection method is added, changed or reset/reauthorized, the Opening Balance transaction dollar amount is changed even if the Opening Balance transaction is dated from years ago.

Check the Opening Balance dollar amount to see if that might be the problem and if it is you will need to correct it.
The easiest way to do this is to restore a backup file dated from anywhere between before when this issue first occurred and when this account was first set up in Quicken.
Compare that Opening Balance dollar amount in the backup file to what it is in you primary file. Make sure that the Opening Balance dollar amount in the primary file matches what is shown in that backup file.
If you corrected the Opening Balance dollar amount in the primary file to make it match what is shown in the backup file: Check your account register balance to see if that fixed the issue. If it did, then you are done. If an issue still exists, proceed to the next step.

DUPLICATE TRANSACTIONS: It is also a known issue that sometimes when the connection method is added, changed or reset/reauthorized, some duplicate transactions will be entered into the register.

Scroll backward through the register looking for duplicates. If they exists, they most likely will occur within about 90 days prior to when this issue was first observed.
If any duplicates are found, delete them. Make sure to retain the original transactions.
After doing this, check the account balance to see if it is now correct. If it is, then you are done.

ACCOUNT BALANCING TRANSACTIONS: If you have entered any such reconciliation transactions in the register to address this issue since it was first observed….delete them.

These 3 things are generally the primary causes for the issue you are seeing in that "wrong" register picture.

Let us know if the troubleshooting steps in this post resolved the issue for you and which one(s) it was that did that. And if the issue still persists, please let us know so additional troubleshooting suggestions can be offered.

jacobs

@khbfin Yes, I'm aware it's a credit card account. And it is working correctly. But you have a positive (credit) balance for some reason. If the online balance has been off for a few months, you'll either need to go back to the last month which reconciled correctly and work forward to find the source of the problem, or if you don't want to do that, make an adjustment entry to make your Quicken balance match your credit card balance as of the latest statement date.

Believe me…it's not my math.

Sorry, but it is. Please re-read my post above, where I show that each purchase you make is changing your balance in a negative direction, and each payment is changing it in a positive direction — just as it should. Each purchase is reducing, not adding to, the running balance, just as it should. I think you're being distracted by the fact that your running balance is positive, but it is moving in the correct direction with each charge and payment. What you need to find out is why/when the balance went positive, to correct that erroneous transaction, or just make an adjustment to the correct, current (negative) balance.